Have you ever considered how easy it is to manipulate people with technology? How we, without reflecting upon the issue, regard everything like “this is the way it is”. Consider this article on Placebo buttons. The author describes how a lot of buttons we have around us do not have any functionality. Typical examples is the door closing button in an elevator, or the wait button to get a green light while waiting to cross the road. The buttons lights up, but often do not have any other functionality. All it does is to give us an illusion that something is happening.
You have got almost the same thing using software. While opening a program we get the spinning wheel or time glass. It tells us that something is happening, and we are relaxed. But is something really happening? And how productive are we while we wait?